


changes

by meshtams



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Harry Potter, Bottom Draco Malfoy, Gay Draco Malfoy, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Supportive Lucius Malfoy, Supportive Narcissa Black Malfoy, Tall Draco Malfoy, Tattooed Draco, Top Harry, alt draco, emo draco??? idek, fred didnt die bc fuck you, minor pansy parkinson/millicent bullstrode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:48:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26060689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meshtams/pseuds/meshtams
Summary: after the war, draco gets a makeover, harry settles, and upon returning to eighth year their very much requited love is brought out into the open
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Kudos: 187





	changes

Draco Malfoy would never say that he was glad the war had happened, after all, people had died, and that was the last thing he had wanted. However, there was one thing he was thankful to the war for- at the end of it all, he really didn’t give a shit for his parents’ approval. His father had approved of his taking the dark mark and pledging his allegiance to the snake-faced megalomaniac himself, and his mother…. Well, she would always love him, and he knew she would just want him to be happy. 

Therefore, as soon as the war ended, Draco decided that he was absolutely fucking done with hiding the fact that he was gay as all hell. He’d been well aware of that fact for almost six years by the end of the war, having figured it out not long after he turned twelve, but he’d hidden it from everyone for fear of disappointing his parents. Well, almost everyone. His best friend Pansy had been aware of Draco’s sexuality even before he came out to her at the beginning of his fourth year at Hogwarts, and when he came out to her, she had responded by letting him know that she was, in fact, a ‘raging lesbian’, to use her wording. After that, they had decided to ‘date’, allowing their peers and family to believe that they were good little heterosexual purebloods, whilst Pansy was actually in a secret long-term relationship with their housemate, Millicent, and Draco…. Pined after Potter. The blond was absolutely in love with his ‘rival’, the-boy-who-lived himself, Harry James Potter, but of course nobody could ever KNOW that…. Again, except for Pansy, naturally. 

So, about a month after Harry Potter finally managed to vanquish old snake-face (which is what Draco had found himself referring to Voldemort in his head since the first time he met him, much to his own internal amusement), once Draco and Narcissa had been cleared of all charges (thanks to the saviour himself…. Really, as if Draco wasn’t already arse-over-tits for the man, he had to swoop in at the Malfoy death eater trials like some avenging angel in tailored emerald robes and save him from Azkaban, the same fire in his glowing green eyes as when he had pulled him out of Fiendfyre) and Lucius had been put on house arrest for the next twenty eight years, with a complete magic ban for the next thirty, Draco decided to tell his parents about his sexuality over dinner. To phrase it like that makes it sound much more premeditated than it was- in actuality, although Draco had decided that yes, he was going to tell his parents, the way he ended up doing so was much more impulsive than anything else. 

“So, Draco, you are now of age, and all of that nasty business with the war is all over and done with, so I think it prudent to begin drawing up a marriage contract. Are you still courting the Parkinson girl? She would make a fine wife for you, I’m sure!” Lucius let out a small chuckle. 

Draco paled slightly at the mention of a marriage to a woman, and almost without thinking blurted out “Actually, father, Pansy and I never were together. You see, I am decidedly too gay, and her too female, for it to ever work out between us.” He flushed scarlet as he realized what he had just done, but honestly felt rather relieved to have gotten it off of his chest. 

Lucius’ eyes seemed to be close to falling right out of their sockets, they were so wide, whilst Narcissa found herself concealing a grin behind her wine glass. She had, of course, known that Draco was gay; if his entire demeanour and way of carrying himself wasn’t enough, then his unrivalled obsession with Harry Potter really gave it away. She found it rather hilarious how shocked her husband seemed to be, after all, Lucius himself had been subjected to many a rant about “perfect Potter, with his ridiculously messy hair that SOMEHOW looks good, and his eyes which are honestly SO green” etc. etc. 

Lucius appeared to have regained some of his composure before he spoke. “O-oh. Well then. I suppose I should scrap that idea, in that case. However, I still expect you to provide an heir with your future husband; there are a lot of good magical surrogacy options available.” 

As Lucius spoke, Draco seemed to relax greatly. He had been incredibly worried about how his father would react, because even though he had decided he didn’t need his approval anymore, he still didn’t want to end up kicked out and disinherited. He was quite surprised with how easily his father had accepted him, but he supposed that after all that they had gone through, it shouldn’t be such a surprise that his father had relaxed his views somewhat. He was somewhat startled, however, when his mother stood from her seat and made her way around the corner of the table until she was between Draco and Lucius, pulling both of them into a somewhat awkward three-way hug and pressing a light kiss to Draco’s forehead. 

After coming out to his family, Draco found himself feeling much more comfortable in who he was, as well as with who he wanted to be in the future. He truly held no ill-will towards muggles, but he also knew he was absolutely clueless to their culture, which he found himself wanting to rectify. So, naturally, he floo-called Pansy, and they decided to begin their “Culture-Makeover” the same way they would begin anything else: by going shopping. Draco felt like he really needed a new look anyway, and Pansy would never turn down a chance to buy more clothes or ridiculous shades of lipstick, so they decided that a trip to muggle London was just what they needed. 

Of course, the first hurdle they needed to tackle was the issue of money. Draco sent Taddy, one of the many house elves in the manor, to convert 3000 galleons into muggle money, and was quite surprised to receive fifteen large bundles of paper with £20 written on each piece. Taddy told him that apparently, 3000 galleons was £15000 in muggle money, and that each bundle had £1000 of notes. Once he had all of his money tucked into his trouser pocket, which had undetectable extension and repelling charms on it, he chose a plain black turtleneck from his now sparse closet. He had vanished any of his clothing that wasn’t muggle-passing, along with a lot of his more formal clothes. He knew he no longer wanted to look like the stuck-up brat he had been before the war, because he was genuinely nothing like that anymore. Once dressed, he flooed over to the Parkinson residence to collect Pansy and Millie, who Pansy had naturally invited along on their excursion, and then they apparated together to a street Millie had recommended for shopping. Millie’s mother was a muggle, and so she was acting as their all-important guide. 

The trio wandered around muggle London for hours, and Draco found a group of shops that interested him deeply. The first shop he felt drawn to, the girls laughed at him a little. It was a reasonably small store, filled practically to the brim with what Millie told him was called Leather, and seemed to be the muggle equivalent of dragon-hide. He picked out a black ‘biker jacket’ and a pair of boots he was told were called Doc Martens, and spent less than half of one of his bundles of money, which he was surprised about- had the items been dragon-hide, he knew he would have spent at least double. He ended up buying multiple pairs of black ‘skinny jeans’, which were made of a soft denim that practically moulded to his body, and lots of t-shirts (also largely in black, but often with designs or slogans he liked. His favourite was one that just said “Go Fuck Yourself” in white across the chest), along with long-sleeved striped undershirts, which would be helpful for keeping his mark hidden. He had even been convinced to let Pansy put eyeliner on him when they went into a large makeup store to look for lipsticks she liked, because, to quote Millie, “if you’re going to dress like an emo boy, you might as well go all the way.” To the same end, he let her pick him out a selection of muggle music and a portable player, which he found himself enjoying deeply; most of the music she had chosen for him was similar to The Weird Sisters, who were his favourite band. 

They were actually on their way to find a safe spot to apparate from when another shop caught Draco’s eye. He had seen similar shops in most Wizarding districts he had been to, but the fact that it was muggle intrigued him. It was a tattoo shop, and in a split-second, he pulled the girls towards it. 

“Draco, what the fuck are you dragging me for?” Pansy complained at him, and tried to pull her arm from his grasp. 

“I want to go in here.” He was grinning widely, now.

She wrinkled her nose. “Into a tattoo shop? Why?” 

“Because I want a tattoo, obviously. Or maybe a few.” 

Millie was sniggering at his antics. “Draco, I’m pretty sure you need to book an appointment for that.” 

“Then I’ll book the appointment now and come back!” He was bouncing on his toes a little now, as giddy as he used to be on Christmas morning as a child. The girls could see that they weren’t going to dissuade him, and followed him in to the shop, watching amusedly as he spoke excitedly to the girl behind the counter about booking an appointment for multiple tattoos the following Monday. 

Draco’s parents definitely didn’t care for his new look. It was very unrefined and muggle, but they also saw how much happier and more comfortable he looked in his new clothes, and chose to keep their mouths shut about it. Actually, Narcissa found she was quite fond of the boots, and wondered if she could convince her husband to buy a pair of his own. She was also very fond of the tattoos her son came home with the following week. He had healed them with magic as soon as he left the shop, and when he showed her the beautiful narcissus flowers wrapping around his forearm, framing his dark mark in a way that made it look much less ugly, she found herself welling up and pulled him into a tight embrace, the way she would when he was a child. Lucius, on the other hand, despised the tattoos, particularly the greyscale dragon his son got on his other forearm, but the almost childlike joy on his son’s face kept him from remarking. It was wonderful to see Draco so happy after the shell of himself he had been over the previous two years, and when Draco’s Hogwarts letter for the one-off ‘Eighth Year’ arrived and Draco confirmed that yes, he would be returning to take his NEWTs, he found that he couldn’t be prouder of his strong, incredible son. 

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Harry found that he wanted to do nothing more than sleep, and so for a solid twenty-three hours, that is exactly what he did, curling up on his bed up in the Gryffindor dormitory. After his (well deserved) rest, he apparated directly from Hogwarts and to The Burrow, where his unofficial adoptive family were. He practically fell into Molly’s arms as soon as he arrived, taking comfort from the motherly way she wrapped him up. Her hugs always seemed to enclose him completely, despite her being nine inches shorter than him. 

“Harry, I’m so proud of you! But you’ve lost too much weight, and its not as though you had any spare to lose, young man! Now, come and sit down and I’ll make you a nice big breakfast.” She ushered him into one of the seats at the magically extended table and busied herself making a very large breakfast, ready for the rest of the family when they got out of bed. 

Harry temporarily moved into The Burrow, along with Hermione, until they could return to Hogwarts, which Headmistress McGonagall assured them would be the first of September, as always. In the meantime, Harry decided to replace all of his horrible old hand-me-downs with real clothes that he could choose for himself (not that that made them much more fashionable than what he had been wearing before, mind you) and spend as much time as possible with his godson, Teddy Lupin. Teddy was an adorable baby, and loved to curl up on Harry’s chest and fall asleep, one of his tiny hands gripping the soft material of Harry’s shirts or sweaters and his usually bright blue hair fading out to its natural soft brown, the exact same shade of Remus’. 

Harry found himself developing a routine fairly quickly. Every day he would wake up at six am, leave Ron’s room quietly as to not disturb his sleeping best friend, have tea and breakfast with Molly, get dressed and then either go to Andromeda’s home to help care for Teddy, or go to Diagon Alley to help the twins out at their shop. Ron also helped at the shop a lot, and Harry was entirely unsurprised when Ron admitted that he no longer wanted to be an Auror, nor did he want to return to get his NEWTs like Harry and Hermione were planning on, but instead wanted to work at Weasleys Wizard Wheezes fulltime. Honestly, Harry completely understood- he also didn’t want to be an Auror anymore, and he found himself more and more drawn to the idea of teaching Defence at Hogwarts. He was, however, surprised when Hermione enthusiastically agreed that Ron should help to run the shop. He had expected her to insist on Ron returning for Eighth Year with them, but he supposed that the war had made her much more laid back. 

His routine was disrupted, however, when Kingsley knocked on the door of the Burrow about a month after the war to let Harry know that the Malfoy family would be going to trial the following day. He knew they had been kept in holding cells at the ministry for the past month, and had expressed to Kingsley his desire to testify for the family. Harry was glad he had gotten new formal robes from Madam Malkins when he had gone shopping for new clothes, because otherwise he would have had to cancel seeing his godson that day. 

Harry testified for all of the Malfoys. He spoke about and provided memories that proved how unwilling Draco had been to commit his crimes, including his memory of the night Dumbledore died, the day he was brought to the Manor and Draco refused to identify him, and a memory of a vision he had gotten from Voldemort of Draco being subjected to the Cruciatus for refusing to murder a muggle. As the memories were shown to the court, Harry couldn’t keep his eyes off of Draco. He paled further with each memory that played, his elegant hands shaking in his lap and his silver eyes shining with unshed tears. Harry wished he could reach out and comfort Draco, but that was neither appropriate in the setting nor his place. He knew that Draco hated him, and that made his feelings for the blond all the more painful. For Narcissa, Harry made sure to point out that she had never actually been a death eater herself, and provided the memory of her lying to Voldemort for him. After his statements, both Draco and Narcissa were fully pardoned, but for Lucius he had no memories or truly positive things to say, so he knew he would be unable to get Lucius free. However, he testified for the fact that he didn’t deserve Azkaban and was instead able to get Lucius put on house arrest in the Manor, which was the best he could do. He left the courtroom quietly at the end of the trials, casting a glance back to see Draco being wrapped up in the arms of his parents, and he smiled, glad he could give the boy he loved his parents back, even if he would never feel the same, after all, Draco was seemingly straight and had been in a relationship with Pansy Parkinson for years. 

The rest of the summer returned to his usual routine, and he found himself actually nervous of going back to Hogwarts, as although it was his home, he knew he would miss his godson a lot.

On the first day of Eighth Year, Harry sat at the new table intended for the returning students and waited for Hermione to arrive. She had decided to go to the library before breakfast, although given that it was barely seven am and the literal first day back, he hadn’t a clue what she was doing already. He was incredibly grateful that their year group would not have to wear uniforms, because he felt much more comfortable in his softest jeans and oversized brown sweater than he ever had in school robes. 

He almost took back his opinion on the lack of uniforms, however, when Draco Malfoy walked into the Great Hall. The blond was wearing heavy black boots, black skinny jeans which hugged every curve of his legs and a pulp t-shirt which exposed his forearms which were completely covered in greyscale tattoos, and his already striking eyes were rimmed with smudged-out black eyeliner that made Harry feel like his heart as going to stop. He could barely breathe as he looked at Draco, because as if he wasn’t deeply enough in love with him already, he had developed a very muggle fashion sense which made him look absolutely jaw-dropping, and he was grinning. Genuinely grinning, and good godric did happiness suit him. For the past two years whenever Harry had seen Draco he looked underfed, anxious and generally uncomfortable, but now he looked to be absolutely thriving as he laughed with Pansy Parkinson, who was on his left side hand in hand with Millicent Bullstrode. That was odd. Weren’t Draco and Pansy together? Why was she holding hands with Millicent? 

Draco walked into the great hall to see that the Eighth Year table was currently only occupied by Harry Potter, sitting alone in a soft-looking sweater and jeans that looked like they actually fit. Harry’s hair had grown out a little since the trials and he had apparently started tying it up in a messy knot at the back of his head. Draco’s breath caught in his throat as he saw him, and he froze slightly, still grinning from smiling with his friends. 

“Draco? What’s….” Pansy started as she realized he had stopped walking, and then followed his eye-line to see Potter sitting there alone, looking at Draco with barely-concealed adoration. No doubt Draco hadn’t even noticed, because his eyes seemed to be glued to Potter’s hair. “Come on, stop being gay for like, 5 seconds, so we can actually go sit down.” 

Draco laughed and turned to her “No can do, Pans, he’s just…” Draco waved his hand vaguely. 

Pansy shoved him lightly to get him to keep moving, pulling her girlfriend along by the hand. “Then why not try talking to him?” 

“Pans, I can’t! I’m pretty sure he’s straight anyway so there’s no point.” Pansy shook her head. Draco was so smart, but he could also be such an oblivious idiot sometimes. They sat at the table, Pansy pushing Draco to sit directly opposite Harry and then dropping into the seat next to him. 

At first, Draco kept his eyes cast downwards to avoid staring at Harry, his arms resting on the table, but he didn’t seem to notice that Harry took that chance to stare at him instead, paying extra attention to Draco’s new tattoos. 

“I like your tattoos.” Harry didn’t even mean to speak, and flushed, his soft brown skin turning bright red. “Narcissus, right? For your mum?”

Draco’s head whipped up in surprise. “Oh! Yeah, they are, and thank you, I got them at this muggle place in London.”

“So, what’s with the new look?” Harry was smiling- Draco didn’t think he could recall Harry ever actually smiling at him before, and he found that he never wanted him to stop. 

“I just felt like it was more me, I guess. We went to muggle London after the trials- thank you for that, by the way, and for returning my wand- and I just decided to get all new clothes and stuff.” 

“You look… really good.” Harry’s cheeks went even redder and he looked down at his hands.

“So do you! I mean… I like your hair…. I mean…” Draco’s fair skin was bright pink now, and he could feel Pansy laughing at him. “Shut the fuck up, Pans.” 

“Aw, is Draci-poo all embarrassed?” She sniggered at him.

“Seriously, why the fuck are you my best friend. Millie is much nicer to me, she’ll be my best friend instead, right?” He looked at her hopefully.

“Absolutely not, Dray. Pansy is probably the only person who can handle you for so long, so I think you’re stuck with her now.” Millie laughed.

“I thought you two were a couple?” Harry looked between Draco and Pansy, his head tilted slightly like a lost puppy, and was confused when they both burst out laughing. “What?”

“Ah, Potter, you see, Draco and I pretended to date, but at the end of the day, he doesn’t have nearly enough tits for my tastes, nor I enough cock for his.” She was still laughing. 

Harry’s mouth fell open in shock. “You’re gay?” He asked Draco, his eyes filled with something Draco couldn’t place. 

Draco immediately felt defensive. “Yes, so what?” He was worried that what was in Harry’s eyes was judgement. He knew he was probably being ridiculous, but he couldn’t help but immediately go on defence to hide his insecurity in front of the boy he’d been in love with since they met. 

“Nothing, I just didn’t realize that.”

“Why, do you have a problem with that?” 

“What? No, of course not!” Harry seemed offended. 

“I… Sorry. When I told Theo and Greg they both started being weird about it, so I guess I’m a bit defensive telling straight guys now.” Draco laughed awkwardly. When he had told his ex-friends, it had been a nightmare. They had called him a poof and a fag, and just been generally very rude to him. Luckily, Blaise had backed him up, being pansexual himself. 

“Oh. I’m not straight, you know.” Harry’s eyes were locked on his hands as he nervously played with his sleeves. 

“What?!” Draco’s voice was higher than it had ever been before, and he blushed brilliantly.

“Uh, yeah, I’m bi. Only ‘Mione and the Weasleys know, though. And now you guys, I guess.” 

“I always knew you stared at Draco too much to be completely straight.” Pansy smirked as both boys went bright red. 

“W-what? Pans, shut up.” Draco grumbled. 

“To be fair, its pretty obvious that you’re in love with each other and will never sort it out without outside help.” Millie wore an almost identical smirk to her girlfriend.

Both girls were a little shocked when they realized that Draco was on the verge of tears. “You’re both arseholes.” He said as he stood up and walked away, leaving the great hall as his eyes started to water. He was halfway back to the dungeons when he heard someone coming up behind him, but expecting to be Pansy or Millicent he just walked faster. 

“Draco? Are you alright?” Harry said as he got closer to the taller boy. 

“What do you want?” Draco sneered half-heartedly as he turned to face Harry, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

Harry felt his heart break a little to see Draco so obviously upset, and stepped towards him, reaching out and laying one hand on the blond’s arm. “Are you alright?” His voice was filled with concern.

“Obviously not, so feel free to laugh at me or let me go.” Draco gritted his teeth.

“Why would I laugh at you?” Harry was genuinely confused. Why would Draco think he wanted to laugh at him? All he wanted to know was whether or not it was true that Draco reciprocated his feelings. 

“Why wouldn’t you? Those two just HUMILIATED me!” He could feel tears running down his cheeks again and brushed them off angrily. 

“Were they right?” Harry was rubbing Draco’s arm lightly in what he hoped was a comforting manner. 

“What do you mean?” Draco was looking anywhere but at Harry. 

“Do you love me?” Harry’s voice was uncertain and insecure, which wasn’t a tone Draco had ever heard from him. Surprised, he looked directly at Harry and made eye contact. He was startled by the vulnerability he saw in Harry’s eyes. 

“Yes.” He whispered, and tried to pull away from Harry, but the shorter boy just stepped closer until they were chest to chest, and then tilted his head up and pressed his lips against Draco’s. 

“I love you too.” He murmured against Draco’s lips. Draco’s breath hitched and he kissed Harry back, wrapping his arms around his neck as Harry wrapped his around his waist. Draco felt himself melt into the kiss pressing himself against Harry and moving one of his hands to undo the hair tie and card through Harry’s thick, black curls. Harry made a low growling sound in his throat and reached one hand to grasp at Draco’s arse, pulling him closer and turning him to press him against the corridor wall. He bit Draco’s lip lightly as, as he gasped, took the opportunity to explore the other boy’s mouth with his tongue as he pushed Draco’s torso against the wall and pulled his long legs up to wrap around his hips, before moving one hand back to his arse and sliding the other up his shirt, pressing their hips together all the while.

Harry froze, however, as he felt a long scar across Draco’s chest. He ran his hands further up and felt more scars just like it, criss-crossing all over his torso. “Draco… is that…. Did I….” Harry knew the answer before Draco spoke, and he let Draco’s legs drop to the floor as he moved back a little. 

“Uh, yeah, they’re from the sectumsempra. It’s okay, though.”

“How the fuck is that okay? How are you even kissing me? I…” Harry choked a sob. “That’s the worst thing I’ve ever done. I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t know what the curse did.” 

“Harry. I know. I was going to Crucio you; you were totally right to respond like that, and I know you didn’t know what the curse did. I could see it on your face straight away. I don’t blame you, and aside from a bunch of ugly scars, there wasn’t any lasting damage, so its fine.” Draco wrapped his arms around Harry. He had never blamed Harry for the bathroom incident, and he hoped that Harry would stop blaming himself. From the way he was reacting, it was clear he still held a lot of guilt over it, and Draco didn’t want that. 

“But…”

“No, Harry. Its fine. You need to stop feeling guilty over it. Now, if we could get back to snogging sometime soon…?” He smiled.

Harry laughed wetly. “Yes, your majesty. Maybe somewhere other than in the middle of the corridor, though?” 

“My room’s just me, so it’ll be empty.” Draco smirked lasciviously as he saw Harry’s eyes darken with desire, and turned around, making his way towards his rooms quickly, swaying his hips slightly. He was stopped, however, when Harry grabbed him and pressed him against the wall again, his hands grasping his arse and his lips trailing kisses up and down his neck. 

“I don’t know how you expect us to get back to your room if you keep walking like that. I know you’re doing it on purpose, you prick.” Harry’s voice was low as he spoke between pressing kisses up the pale column of Draco’s throat.

“Mm… I wish I could say I’m sorry but I’m not.” He laughed, then gasped as Harry brought one of his hands down to smack his arse cheek. 

“Be good. Now, how far is your room?” Harry’s eyes were dark with arousal but sparkling with mirth. 

“J-just down the corridor. About three minutes.” His voice was breathy and soft. 

“Come on then.” Harry smirked and held out his hand for Draco, pulling him down the corridor until they reached Draco’s room. 

“Alihotsy.” He gave the password to the door and pulled Harry through as it creaked open. Harry immediately spun him and pressed his lips against his, backing him up through a haze of heated kisses until the backs of Draco’s legs hit his bed. Draco kicked off his boots and socks and moved back, laying back on his bed as Harry pressed on top of him, wrapping Draco’s legs around his back and pulling off his shirt. He followed it with his own shirt, then leaned down to press soft kisses against the scars across Draco’s chest. 

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” His voice was barely more than a growl as he pressed their lips together, grinding down on his new boyfriend.

“I love you.” Draco’s voice was soft and still filled with awe that he was able to say those words to Harry now. 

“I love you too.”


End file.
